Wednesday, August 01, 2007

A Summer Breeze Thru the East

The venerable Henry Abbott of True Hoop asked a bunch of bloggers, journalists, & other basketball dignitaries to provide a quick mid-summer assessment of the new & improved Eastern Conference. I was lucky enough to be asked to provide my input on the topic, and you can see an excerpted summary over on True Hoop right now. Below is my full response to Henry's queries about how the East will shake out in the '07/'08 season:

Think 5 teams are pretty much locks for the playoffsin the East right now: Celts, Nets, Bulls, Cavs, &Pistons. I'm having a tough time getting a good readon the Southeast Division right now, but I guess I'mleaning toward the Heat taking the SE. But don't feelconfident about that since Wade looks like he'smissing the first month or two, & you can alwayspencil in Shaq for missing 20-25 games either by legitinjury or just self-imposed rest.

That leaves 2 spots left which I think can be had byanyone else besides the Sixers, who should bechallenging the TWolves for most ping-pong balls nextMay. I'm leaning toward the Wiz & the Raps for thelast 2 spots right now, but think the Knicks, Bobcats,Pacers, & Magic have a legit shot to compete for thelast 2 spots as well, and even the Hawks have a slimshot in my mind. Not that high on the Bucks, butcan't totally count them out of a 8-seed, & think theyhave a slim chance.

Not really sure who I'm picking to make the ConfFinals because I don't think much separates the Celts,Nets, Bulls, Pistons, Cavs, & Heat (if healthy) rightnow. For some reason, I'm feeling the Bulls at thispresent time to emerge from the East, but it's a verytenuous choice & could change by Halloween. Eventhough they didn't add a low-post scorer, they havegreat depth & defense, and the Cavs have done nothingto really improve themselves so far.

The Celts would probably be the obvious answer formost improved. But then again, their depth has beendecimated & I don't see how they're that much betterthan the Nets, if at all. Think Charlotte has done avery fine job this off-season upgrading their wingspots, and with the natural maturation of Felton,Okafor, Herrmann, May (if he can stay healthy) &Morrison, they have a legit shot at the playoffs.